A client gets an offer and calls you, thrilled and nervous at the same time. Their first instinct is often to accept immediately, before anyone changes their mind. Sometimes that is the right call. Often it is fear talking, and they will wonder for years whether they left something on the table.
Your job here is not to negotiate for them, and it is not to promise that asking will work. It is to help them make a calm, informed decision and say it out loud well. Here is how to coach it.
Start with what you can and cannot promise
Say this early and plainly: you can help them prepare, but the employer decides what it will pay. No coach can guarantee a raise, a number, or that an ask will be accepted. Clients trust you more for saying it, and it protects you from a client who blames the coaching when an employer simply says no.
Research a range, not a number
The single most useful thing you can do is help the client stop guessing. Have them gather pay information from several places:
- Public data. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay information by occupation in its Occupational Outlook Handbook. It is broad, but it is a sourced starting point.
- Job postings. Some states and cities now require employers to include pay ranges in job listings, so similar postings are often the most current data the client can find.
- People. Recruiters, professional associations, and people doing similar work at similar organisations. Many will share a range if asked respectfully.
Then help them adjust for the things that move the number: location, the size and type of organisation, the level of the role, and how closely their experience matches. The output is a range with three points: what they would be pleased with, what they would accept, and the point at which they would walk away. Write all three down. Deciding the walk-away point before the call is what keeps a nervous person from agreeing to something they regret.
Look at the whole offer
Base pay is one line. Before any conversation, help the client list everything else that matters to them and rank it:
- Start date, and time off before they start.
- Schedule, remote or hybrid days, and flexibility.
- Title and level, which shape every future raise and job search.
- Paid time off, benefits, and when they begin.
- Training, certification, or education support.
- A pay review at a set point, written into the offer.
Some of these are easier for an employer to give than salary. A client who knows their own ranking can trade sensibly instead of asking for everything or nothing.
Write the ask
A good counter is short. It does four things: thanks them and says the client is excited about the role, names what they are asking for, gives one or two reasons tied to the job and their experience, and stops.
Help the client write it in their own words, then cut it. Long explanations sound like apologies. The reasons should be about the value they bring and the research they did — not about rent, debts, or what a friend earns. Those may be real, but they hand the employer a reason to decide what the client “needs.”
If the conversation is by phone or video, have them say it rather than read it. If it is by email, read it aloud together before it goes, so it sounds like a person.
Practise the silence
The hardest part of a negotiation is the pause after the ask. Most people fill it by taking the request back: “…but I’m flexible, whatever works.” Role-play the conversation and, as the employer, say nothing for a few seconds after they ask. Let them feel it. Then do it again until they can sit through it.
Practise the likely responses too: “That’s above our range.” “Let me check and get back to you.” “What is the lowest you would accept?” “We need an answer by tomorrow.” The client should never hear a sentence on the real call for the first time.
Salary history and the “what are you making now” question
Whether an employer can ask about pay history depends on where the job is. A number of states and cities restrict that question, and the rules vary. Do not give legal advice on it. Have the client check their state labor department, and if they think a rule was broken, send them to an employment attorney.
Wherever it is allowed, help the client decide in advance how they will answer — many prefer to redirect to what they are looking for in this role, based on their research, rather than anchor to an old number.
When the answer is no
Prepare for this before the call, not after. If the employer cannot move on pay, the client has options they already ranked: ask about another part of the package, ask for a written pay review at a set point, accept as offered, or decline. Asking politely is a normal part of hiring, and the client still gets to make the final decision calmly.
Whatever is agreed, help them get it in writing before they resign from anything.
Negotiating is a skill, not a personality
Many clients believe that people who negotiate are pushy and that they are “just not like that.” Coach the opposite. Asking once, politely, with research behind it, is ordinary professional behaviour. It gets easier with practice, and every time they do it, the next one is less frightening.
It is worth practising your own version too. The same calm, short ask works when you quote your own prices — and if this offer came after an interview you prepared them for, the interview prep and this conversation make a natural two-part package to describe on your site.
This article is general educational information, not legal, tax, financial, or career-counselling advice, and reading it creates no professional relationship. We make no promise that you will earn any money or reach any particular result — that depends on your own work, skills, and market. Certification requirements, fees, and rules are set by the issuing bodies and change; confirm the current terms with the body itself before you rely on anything here.